Tag : spearing

What’s better than a microburst of birds, bait and bass materializing right before your eyes? Your boat is drifting with the current through a fog covered rip line and you hear the high pitch squawking of terns just a few yards away. Could they be working over a school of fish? There they are! Is [...]

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A feeding frenzy showing bay anchovies being ambushed underwater by cigar minnows and a fish-eye view of the perils baitfish face when schooling up against a breakwater. Striped bass, triggerfish, stingray, tautog, black sea bass, rudderfish are also highlighted in order to provide fishermen with a highly detailed anglers-eye view of bait.

Bay anchovies packed like sardines in a can

This dive on the last day of July was simply extraordinary. I entered the water at the base of the breakwater near East Matunuck state beach and proceeded to dive the entire length of the wall, up and back. Along the way I stopped to film the “trials of life” that the hapless bay anchovies were experiencing.

I hope the video gives you a feel for what it must be like to be under constant attack from all sides. The cigar minnows are not a common sight in our waters and a lot of bathers have no idea that giant stingrays weighing several hundred pounds could be cruising right off the beach.

Each year more and more triggerfish show up and the same can be said for jacks and banded rudderfish. The tautog were along the bottom where the sand reaches the stone wall, while the bass cruised the mid-water zone looking for a quick meal. I saw flounder, lots of sea bass, cunners, snapper blues, baby peanut bunker, silversides, scup, and a host of other marine life. It was a fantastic dive, in so much as there was always something going on; it’s always nice to see a healthy ocean with lots of biodiversity.

Sand Lance

Spawning

There are two species of sand lance recognized as living on the east coast of North America: an inshore and offshore species. They have been spawning along their range since November and spawning will continue through March.

Importance

A scool of sand lance or sand eels are important baitfish for stripers and other game fish

In recent years this has become a significant biomass component on the Atlantic coast of North Atlantic. Cod, haddock, striped bass and many other important commercial and recreational fish depend on these snakelike fish, commonly referred to as sand eels. They also help sustain whales and sea birds.